


All's Fair in Love and Science

by BeggarWhoRides



Series: Childhood Friends AU [2]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Fluff, Middle School, Pre-Relationship, Science Experiments, Volcanoes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 05:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4509591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeggarWhoRides/pseuds/BeggarWhoRides
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seventh grader Cosima Niehaus is determined to win Glendale Middle School's science fair, but with Scott Smith and Sarah Stubbs teaming up against her, she might need some help.</p>
<p>Specifically, help from her neighbor Delphine.</p>
<p>(Part 2 of the Childhood Friends AU, but can be read as a standalone)</p>
            </blockquote>





	All's Fair in Love and Science

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for: Some mentions of fighting/divorce/potential domestic violence. Nothing graphic and only in passing.

“Delphine-Delphine-Delphine!”

Delphine froze where she lay on her bed, rereading _Le Petit Prince._ From her bedroom window, an insistent tapping started.

“Delphine! Please be in there!”

She sat up and half-ran over to her window, staring dumbly at Cosima’s beaming face pressed to the glass.

“Cosima? Did you...my room is on the second floor!”

“I know, I’m slipping, can you open the window please?”

Delphine fumbled with the latch and popped it open before reaching out and hurriedly pulling Cosima inside. The smaller girl pulled in her backpack behind her, a worn-out and slightly stained old bag which clunked loudly as it bumped against the windowsill. Delphine closed the window behind her while Cosima retied her dark locks into a high ponytail.

“You remember we live next door to each other, right? You could have knocked on the door.”

“I know. But I’ve wanted to see if I could climb that tree between our houses for ages, so. You’re not busy or anything, are you?” Cosima asked, shuffling a bit awkwardly and holding her bag tightly. 

Delphine smiled, smoothing out a small wrinkle in her sundress. “No, just reading. What is so important that you had to climb into my room?”

“I totally forgot!” Cosima plunged her hand into her bag, a few things rattling and falling into each other before pulling out a rumpled sheet of paper. She dropped her bag and sat cross-legged on the floor, smoothing it out as best she could. Delphine padded over and sat next to her, leaning over to look at the flyer.

“I was at school ‘cuz I forgot my math textbook, and I saw this,” Cosima explained, once the paper was laying semi-flat. _GLENDALE MIDDLE SCHOOL,_ the flyer read in big, bright letters. _ANNUAL SCIENCE FAIR!_ “This is an’ emergency.” 

“Emergency?” Delphine asked, confused. “But you won first easily last year. Why are you worried?”

“Cuz Scott was really determined to win last year, an’ he’s extra-determined this year. I heard he’s already started working, and he’s got a _partner._ Sarah Stubbs.”

“Are partners allowed?”

“Technically, but nobody uses ‘em. Except he really wants to win this year.”

“Are you going to let him?”

“Heck no,” Cosima said, sitting up straighter with a determined glint in her eye. “I’m gonna be the first student at Glendale Middle to win the science fair three years in a row. I just...I might need a little help this time,” she admitted, a little sheepishly.

“What are you going to do?” 

“Um…” Cosima fidgeted, smoothing out the flyer again and again. “D’youwannabemypartner?”

_“Quoi?”_

“Wanna be my partner? For the science fair?”

“Oh, I…” Delphine fussed with one of her curls, glancing at the floor. “But I’ve never done a science fair before.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Cosima said readily. “You’ve got the best science grades in the whole class!”

“How did you know that?” Delphine asked, a spot of pink appearing high on her cheeks. “Mrs. Sadler doesn’t share grades with the class.” 

“I guessed,” Cosima admitted with a shrug. “But I also kinda knew it. You’re super smart,” she explained at Delphine’s blank look. “And you answer almost as many questions in class as I do. So...will you? Be my partner?”

“Okay,” Delphine said, her small pleased smile matching Cosima’s wide grin in emotion, if not in size. “I’ll do it.” 

_“Yes!”_ Cosima said, punching the air. “I thought I was gonna have to ask Sarah or someone like that.”

“Sarah Stubbs? But I thought she was working with Scott.”

“Sarah Manning,” Cosima explained, “The tough girl who wears leather a lot, she’s always in the back row?”

“Her twin sister is Helena, yes? The…” Delphine motioned around her head, imitating a large mound of frizzy hair.

“Yeah, that’s them.” 

“They’re…” Delphine fumbled for words for a moment. “A little scary, don’t you think?”

“Sarah and Helena? Nah,” Cosima said, shaking her head. “If they like you, they’re great. And really not that scary if you get to know them.”

Delphine hmm’d, not totally convinced, but willing to let it drop. “What were you thinking for the experiment?” 

“Okay,” Cosima said, practically bursting with excitement again. She reached deep into her bag before pulling out a stuffed notebook and flipping through the pages. “So I had a couple ideas, and I talked to my mom a bit, except she just said to do whatever I was most excited about and that so long as I was excited it would turn out great. Which wasn’t really helpful, because I’m really excited about everything, so I was thinking we could look at the list together an’ see if there’s anything we both think is super cool.” 

“Okay,” Delphine said eagerly, scooting across the floor to sit next to Cosima. Their shoulders brushed, and Cosima stiffened for a moment before coughing and giving the notebook perhaps a bit more attention than was totally warranted. “See anything interesting?”

“What is this solar oven one?” Delphine asked, pointing at one of the notes written in Cosima’s messy scrawl. “Cooking with the sun?” 

“Yeah, basically you make an oven with lots of reflective surfaces and focus the sunlight on the food, and cook it. You can make ‘em with tinfoil and a cardboard box, I think.” 

“We could serve samples of what we cooked,” Delphine mused, chewing her lip. “The judges would like that.” 

“There’s only one problem,” Cosima confessed, studiously ignoring how she could smell Delphine’s shampoo. “I can’t cook. Like, at all. I set spaghetti on fire.” 

Delphine blinked. “...How?”

“I still don’t know. I was gonna repeat it, change a couple variables, but Mom thought maybe it was best if I didn’t.” 

“Maybe not the solar oven, then,” Delphine said, running her finger down the list. “Do you think we have time to test the ones about plant growth?” 

“Probs not. The fair’s in a couple weeks, and we have to make a really awesome display too.” 

“Hm,” Delphine sighed, the side of her head bumping Cosima’s as she leaned in to squint at some of the notes Cosima had scribbled. “What is this about the ‘golden ratio’?”

“I read about it a couple weeks ago,” Cosima explained, pointing to a sketch of a nautilus shell in the notebook’s margins. “It’s supposed to be, like, the mathematically perfect ratio. The measurements of beauty, in terms of people and buildings and things--it’s in, like, all the Renaissance paintings. But it’s more than that, it’s repeated all over in nature,” she said, unaware that she was tracing its shape in the air as she spoke, and the way Delphine was staring at her, enraptured. “In _everything._ In the flowers, in the bees...in us.” 

Delphine smiled, small and sweet, and tucked a straying lock of Cosima’s dark hair behind her ear. “That’s beautiful.”

Cosima half-laughed, glancing down and adjusting her glasses. “It’s just a ratio.”

“But you love it.”

“Yeah. Yeah I do.”

“Then maybe we should do a project on this,” Delphine murmured. “Maybe see how much faces in magazines match the ratio?”

“I hate fashion magazines,” Cosima admitted, her face scrunching. “They’re stupid. And I don’t know if it’s flashy enough for the judges, you know? They all like explosions and stuff.” 

“You say that like you don’t,” Delphine teased, and Cosima laughed. “Why is ‘acid and base reactions’ crossed out?”

“It’s too much like those fake volcanoes. All the stupid sixth graders are gonna be making those.”

“Fake...volcanoes?”

“Yeah,” Cosima said, before turning to stare dumbfounded at Delphine. “You’ve never made a volcano?”

“No,” Delphine said, looking increasingly confused. “You can make volcanoes?”

A slow, wide grin grew across Cosima’s face. “Have you got baking soda an’ vinegar?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you say to Doctor Cormier, Cosima?”

Cosima shuffled her feet, but under the disapproving glare of her mother and the livid eyes of Doctor Agathe Cormier, she relented.

“I’m sorry for sneaking into your house and setting off a baking soda volcano.” 

“And?”

“And for doing it in Delphine’s bedroom. And for doing it without your permission.”

_“And?”_ her mother asked again. Cosima squirmed.

“And for using up all your baking soda and vinegar?”

“That about covers it.” Esther Niehaus sighed, resting her hand on her daughter’s shoulder in a mix of comforting and preventing her from running, and turned to Delphine’s mother. “I am so sorry about this--Cosima’s a big ideas girl, she doesn’t always think them through.” 

“That is clear,” Delphine’s mother sniffed, her French accent thick and intimidating. Delphine had disappeared somewhere after her mother had come into the room and shouted an awful lot of French things that really had not sounded very nice. “‘Science experiments’ and fairs, _really.”_

Cosima felt her mother stiffen next to her, but Esther’s tone was nothing but civil when she answered. “Well, these are good events for encouraging students to become interested in science when they’re very young.” 

“Delphine doesn’t need childish experiments or silly prizes. She already has top grades in science, and she is going to be a world class surgeon someday.” 

“I’m sure she will be,” Esther said, her smile brittle. “But for now she _is_ a child, and the fairs are good fun. I’ll be happy to pay for any damages,” she added, smiling widely, before Agathe could reply. “Just send over the bill. I’ll be sure to have the girls do any science at our house instead of yours in the future.” 

Her arm firm on Cosima’s shoulder, Esther steered Cosima away from the Cormier’s fancy white brick house back over to the red Niehaus residence. Cosima squirmed out of her mother’s arms as soon as they were inside, brushing off her t-shirt and jeans, both of which were stained with vinegar and baking soda.

“What were you thinking, Cosima?”

“She’d never made a volcano!” Cosima said indignantly. “Her mom way overreacted, anyway. The mess wasn’t that bad. She probably doesn’t even need a new rug.” 

“Be that as it may,” Esther sighed, shooing Cosima over to the kitchen table. “It isn’t our place to make those calls. Especially when it comes to other people’s families.” 

“But Delphine’s not happy!” 

“Cosima…” Esther sighed, tying up her dreadlocks. “It’s complicated, honey. You’ll understand--”

“I’m in seventh grade now, Mom, you can’t keep using that excuse forever.” 

“I know,” her mother said, reaching out and running her hand over Cosima’s head. “But I can use it a little longer.”

“M _om,”_ Cosima complained, shrugging off the hand. “Stop treating me like a little kid!” 

“Okay, okay,” Esther laughed, crossing over to the cluttered kitchen counter. “You can call tomorrow and see if her mom will let you come over and you two can work on your project, okay? And you’re going to _call first,_ and use their front door. Agreed?”

“Fine,” Cosima sighed, laying her head on the table.

“And when we buy Delphine a new rug, the money’s coming out of your allowance.”

Cosima’s head shot back up. “But that’s like 40 dollars!”

“Better get saving, then.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delphine was ready when the tapping at her window came this time, pulling Cosima though and onto solid ground almost before she’d started knocking.

The smell of vinegar still hung heavily in the air, and the plush white rug they’d sat on earlier was gone. Delphine closed the window, not quite looking at Cosima, and Cosima looked at the now bare hardwood instead of at Delphine.

“Is your mom really mad?”

_“Un peu,”_ Delphine said, sighing. “She said she was too cross to look at me and that I was going to have to spend the weekend at Papa’s, but when he came to get me…” 

She shook her head, and Cosima realized the noise she’d been hearing in the background was two voices overlapping, both hissing in anger and speaking rapid French. Something smashed downstairs, and Delphine flinched. 

“I’m sorry,” Cosima said, horrified and guilty. “It was stupid to do the volcano in your bedroom, I should’ve--” 

“It’s fine,” Delphine said quickly, shaking her head. “They’ve forgotten all about the rug by now. And me. Papa will storm out soon, anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Cosima said again, still feeling guilt heavy in her stomach. “I can go--”

“No,” Delphine blurted, startling Cosima into looking up at her. This time it was Delphine who dropped her eyes, reaching up and twisting a curl between her fingers. “You don’t have to, I mean. Maman won’t notice. And the volcano was very cool.”

“It was?” Cosima asked, her grin a bit more shy than usual. “I mean, duh, of course it was. Good old acid-base reactions.” 

“They are,” Delphine nodded, smiling. “I have also heard of a, um, ‘coke and mentos’ thing?”

“You’ve never…” Cosima’s mouth gaped for a second before she quickly shook her head, waving her hands. “Nope. I’m not going to suggest it, especially not right after I got you in trouble, but...seriously?” 

“Maybe show me another time?” 

“Totes,” Cosima said, beaming. “Maybe outside, though?”

_“Oui,_ maybe,” Delphine teased back. “But you can. Stay. If you want. We could…” She gestured to the bag that Cosima always seemed to have on her. “Talk about more ideas for the fair?” 

“Yeah, okay. If you want,” Cosima said, sitting cross-legged on the floor, the scent of vinegar forgotten. Delphine joined her a moment later. “Okay, so there’s this one…”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cosima and Delphine’s project--isolating the DNA from a piece of banana, along with detailed notes on the process and a mention of how the golden ratio could be found in the molecules--won first prize in the science fair by a landslide.

Scott Smith and Sarah Stubbs’s volcano won second.

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, the sequel to "the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies" that I wasn't sure I was going to write, complete with science fairs and baking soda volcanoes. Massive, massive thanks to my beta, Noelle, on tumblr as lesbianchristmasangel.
> 
> Comments are always adored, and criticism is encouraged. Come talk to me on tumblr at probablytatiana if that's more your style--I'm always up for a discussion of Orphan Black, Cophine, or anything really.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. It means the world to me <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [All's Fair in Love and Science (Illustration)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714619) by [Betterwithoutname](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Betterwithoutname/pseuds/Betterwithoutname)




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